The essential oil extracted with superheated steam extraction from Cinnamomum cassia from Pakistan has potential antimicrobial and antioxidant applications.

Pharmaceutical, food, beverage, cosmetics, and other industries face severe challenges from bacterial infections and oxidative degradation of active molecules. Their prevention has led to a large use of synthetic preservatives that, however, impact negatively on human health. Natural antioxidants and antimicrobial agents are therefore actively sought, and essential oils (EOs) from different plants are among the natural products with such potentialities. In this context, aimed at finding the method of choice for producing an essential oil (EO) from a Cinnamomum cassia bark from Pakistan with such characteristics, the yield and the antimicrobial and antioxidant properties of the oil extracted by superheated steam extraction (SHSE) were cmpared with those obtained using the standard hydro- and steam distillation techniques. More than 99% of the oil components, including predominant sesquiterpene hydrocarbons, were identified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The EO obtained by SHSE exhibited the highest yield (2.07%) and the most potent antimicrobial effects against Escherichia coli, Pasteurella multocida, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Alternaria alternate, Fusarium solani, Aspergillus flavus, and Aspergillus niger. The antimicrobial ativity was determined by the resazurin microtiter-plate, the disc diffusion, the micro-dilution broth susceptibility, and the biofilm assays. In addition, the SHSE EO displayed the most potent effects (93.60%) in the DPPH free radical scavenging assay, as well as the highest (86.66%) hydrogen peroxide free radical scavenging activity and the most powerful antioxidant/reducing properties (60.97 mg of gallic acid/100 g oil). Based on these results, the SHSE technique is strongly recommended over the two traditional distillation methods for the extraction of the EO from the bark of C. cassia.